> >I have heard it said in East TN. that they, "Have a "N" in the
> woodpile."<
>
And I've heard it used in California or Missouri, or even by European
visitors. But as someone else also suggested here, I've most often heard
it used, not in a specific reference to someone with hidden African
American ancestry, but in a more generic sense, to mean some individual
or family has a hidden secret they don't want revealed .... or that
something or someone isn't quite what they seem. In other words, used in
the much the same way as them having "a skeleton in the closet."
Jeannie